D gets top grades in a rigorous private school, but her teachers are always so proud to say, “We don’t teach to the test.” That’s all well and good, but what happens when the kid has to take the #*$!& test?
We decided to give the ACT a shot, and she will be signing up for a prep course beginning in January. I’m also having her go through the ACT book to see what math she feels she needs to work on, and then I will have her take a few tutoring sessions with a retired math teacher who has worked with her in the past. We’ll see if that helps.
@MAmom111 Our school district starts offering the PSAT in 7th grade. It’s optional but encouraged. So by 11th grade a lot of top performers in our school are on their 5th round of taking it. I think the familiarity with the test definitely helps.
@MAmom111 in our case it’s a combination - my middle kid (the 2020 one) is a great tester (offset by a seeming inability to ever get an A in an English class, unfortunately ). And then after doing well on the PSAT in 10th, we decided to time the SAT prep class for September this year to a) get it over with before the other classes got busy and then b) maybe help get the PSAT up a bit higher. In the end the PSAT didn’t quite hit the NMSF qualifying range but actually the SAT itself I think is one and done after the October test.
With my oldest, I hadn’t really thought things through that far ahead (she didn’t take the PSAT in 10th and she took the SAT for the first time before having a prep class). My youngest I don’t want to jinx but I’m guessing he’ll test well but not out of the ballpark and he’s younger for his grade.
Brother was scoring 1440 on his practice exams, and his smart friends were scoring above that, yet they all scored around 1400-1420 on the actual PSAT exam.
To answer several questions at once. 10th grade PSAT was the first time my kid had taken any test of the SAT variety. 11th grade PSAT was the second. Time. She did no prep at ALL either time. Despite me. LOL
Our sample size of one says the curve did not budge at all either.
2017/2018
Reading: 37/37
Writing / Language: 33/34
Math: 38/37.5
Analysis in Science: 36/37
Analysis in History/Social Science: 37/38
So there you go. The effect of no prep is no change! It is almost magical.
I want to make sure I’m understanding this correctly. My son just got his PSAT scores. He got a 1490 : 750 EBRW and 740 M. If I understand the calculation, that’s a 224 SI? Let’s hope that’s good enough to be a semi finalist! We’re in IL.
I used earlyscores website to view my DD score early, her score is 3 points below state cutoff for the last 2 years, she will be commended. She was very disappointed since she studied hard for this and ACT tests last summer.
So can any of you in the know parents help me understand how to arrive at the cut off scores. My ds20 is really disappointed in his score. He did much better on his first SAT in October that was a week before the PSAT and seemed to think he had a real chance at NMSF. We are trying to tell him that his score was fine although we know not high enough to make any cut off. We are happy that he was able to show what he knows on the actual SAT and told him to move on. Lots of talk around his school between his peers about their qualifying scores and we don’t know how they get that score. Just not sure how to figure out if it will be close to commended or anything.
We do not have his college board account and his school posts SAT and ACT on Naviance but no PSAT scores have been posted (with older sibling either). Can you give me the run down on how to turn the 2 subscores into a qualifying score number? Do we need the raw score or any other breakdown scores? (we don’t have that) Basically we know that he had a 700 M and 720 R/W.
I guess it’s only the 12th crowd waiting for scores. I’m not sure my daughter even knows about it. She has a college board account. She has received many emails from colleges since taking the PSAT. I believe I may have mentioned earlier she hates the PSAT and we are in a state you have to take the SAT in April(Illinois). She took the ACT in October and listed two schools to have the scores sent to. We signed her up through the family email. (one she never looks at). Yesterday we got email from an admission counselor at one she sent it to (U of I) if she had any questions about admission process or any general questions. Is this common?
Just want to chime in here as the parent of an “average” DS20. The last several pages are mostly discussing things I have no experience with! DS tried taking a few pre-AP classes in his first two years of HS, mostly resulting in B’s and C’s, with a lot of stress during the days prior to grades coming out. This year, he is taking all on-level courses and is much less stressed. He has two mid- to high B’s and the rest A’s. He is not an academically outstanding or even motivated student. He is a good kid, a good friend, and a two-sport athlete up until this year, when he’s focusing on the sport he hopes to continue playing in college.
He took the PSAT in 10th grade with no prep and got an okay-not-great score; he pointed out that it covered a lot of math that he hadn’t even taken yet, at that point. Our school district offers a March 2019 SAT test for free, so he will take that. They will probably do some prep in class but we most likely won’t do any at home. After that score comes in, if we need to take another test and do some prep, we’ll consider it at that time. His position in his sport is usually one of the last to be recruited, so it will likely be this time next year before he’s really focusing on picking a school. Luckily, with the major he is currently interested in, he will have several good choices of schools here in Texas.
Good luck to all your high-fliers. Hope they all get the scores and schools that they want.
@bamamom2021 - @3scoutsmom did the calculation, but in case you are still curious how to do it, take the reading/writing score, drop the zero, and double that. Take the math score, drop the zero, and add to the other. So in your case, 2* 72 + 70.
@Nicki20 Expect to get a ton of email and snail mail for the next year. 99% of all email from schools is pure marketing that is not targeted in any special way. Unfortunately (or fortunately), there is that 1% you have to pay attention to. I also had my daughter sign up for college correspondence because I enjoy looking at everything. I gave her a ‘throw-away’ email address for this purpose, and I have access to it. It is what we used for accounts at both ACT and CB. I would not read anything in to any email from UIUC…but you will have to develop your own filter to determine what is junk and what is not. When in doubt, it’s probably junk. Oh, and your D needs to get in the habit at some point to check her email.
@Nicki20 yes this is common. Scroll down to the bottom of the e-mail. Does it say that they got her name from the College Board or from the ACT? If so, it is because she checked to allow schools to receive her contact info. You might click on one of the links in the email and look at the url at the top. Sometimes it will give you a hint as to why they targeted her. Look for the words “source” or “campaign” in the url.
We created a new e-mail for all college info (College Board, ACT, school tours, etc) so that the emails don’t create too much spam in the primary e-mail account. For my first, we created a unique e-mail account that we used only for college applications. We knew if something was sent to the “college application” e-mail address then it was most likely an important update or action item.
D20 got her PSAT scores. Looks like she may be NM commended! We weren’t expecting that. Her overall score is 1410.
@MAmom111
Re: prep - My kids have been in small private schools their whole lives, so don’t have much experience with standardized testing. They did take the SSAT in middle school, when applying to high schools, and that was…mmm, challenging. So, I knew we would do prep for SAT. A friend suggested a local test prep company, and they prefer to start the prep for the PSAT, then continue prep in the spring for SAT (w essay). D19 did the PSAT prep, hated it, then did a few tutoring sessions for the March SAT and got a 1450, which was very good relative to her gpa.
D20 scored a 1250 in 10th without prep. With the prep in 11th, she got 1410. She is a very good student, advanced in math, and we just want her to do her best on the SAT. For us, the psat prep was all with the goal of preparing her for the sat.
3235 and #3236. Thanks for your answers. The email from U of I had no source or campaign in the url. There was a man's name and phone number which I was able to verify. I'm 99.9% sure its from ACT because none were sent to her email. She gets a daily one from another Big Ten school because of a college night she went to. Being in the state it is near the top of her list and I was more surprised that we got any communication. TBH it is more of a "safety" school for her and maybe that's why we got the communication? More than 10 % of the class of 2018 at her school go there.
Can someone inform me about all the fuss with regard to the NMS? Not being cheeky.
My daughter prepped moderately for ACT. Took a baseline in the spring and then started a 12 week prep schedule that spanned the summer. Dedicated 1-2.5 hours per week and took a practice test every month using data from each test(s) before to target specific areas. Took the official test in September and is done. The test is learnable and beatable. I think there are a lot of pitfalls; poor study materials, a study course that’s too long or not long enough (cramming), and inefficient use of time.
). And then after doing well on the PSAT in 10th, we decided to time the SAT prep class for September this year to a) get it over with before the other classes got busy and then b) maybe help get the PSAT up a bit higher. In the end the PSAT didn’t quite hit the NMSF qualifying range but actually the SAT itself I think is one and done after the October test.
DS tried taking a few pre-AP classes in his first two years of HS, mostly resulting in B’s and C’s, with a lot of stress during the days prior to grades coming out. This year, he is taking all on-level courses and is much less stressed. He has two mid- to high B’s and the rest A’s. He is not an academically outstanding or even motivated student. He is a good kid, a good friend, and a two-sport athlete up until this year, when he’s focusing on the sport he hopes to continue playing in college.